The Spring Festival generally refers to the first day of the first month of the lunar calendar, which is the first day of the year. It is traditionally called New Year's Day (different from the current Chinese New Year's Day in the Gregorian calendar), the first day of the year, and the first day of the year. Now it is generally called New Year, The New Year is also verbally known as celebrating the new year, celebrating the new year, celebrating the new year, and is also called the lunar year and the lunar new year. But among the people, the Spring Festival in the traditional sense refers to the period from the twelfth lunar month on the eighth day of the twelfth lunar month, or the twelfth lunar month on the 23rd or 24th day of the twelfth lunar month, to the fifteenth day of the first lunar month, with New Year's Eve and the first day of the first lunar month as the climax. In some places, New Year celebrations even last until the end of the first month. The Spring Festival, Qingming Festival, Dragon Boat Festival and Mid-Autumn Festival are also known as the four traditional festivals of the Chinese Han people.
The last day of the lunar year (the big month is 30 days and the small month is 29 days) is called "New Year's Eve". On New Year's Eve, the whole family gets together to have New Year's Eve dinner (the last meal of the year in the lunar calendar) ), after the New Year's Eve dinner there is a custom of giving out New Year's money and staying up late (keeping the New Year's Eve up), which means keeping up the New Year's Eve from the last day of this year to the first day of the next year.
During the Spring Festival, China's Han and many ethnic minorities hold various activities to celebrate. These activities mainly focus on offering sacrifices to gods and Buddhas, paying homage to ancestors, eradicating the old and bringing in the new, welcoming the new year and blessings, and praying for a good harvest. The activities are rich and colorful with strong national characteristics. Dozens of ethnic minorities including the Manchu, Mongolian, Yao, Zhuang, Bai, Gaoshan, Hezhe, Hani, Daur, Dong and Li also have the custom of celebrating the Spring Festival, but each has its own ethnic characteristics in the form of the festival.
The Spring Festival is a major festival for celebrating the New Year in many countries and regions in East Asia. It is called "T?t Nguyên ?án" (New Year's Day) in Vietnamese, "New Year's Day" in Japanese (renamed the old first month after the Meiji Restoration), and "?" (this is an inherent word, meaning New Year) in Korean. Now, in addition to China, the Korean Peninsula, Vietnam, Japan and other places, the Spring Festival is also one of the most important festivals in Mongolia, Laos, Myanmar, Cambodia, Thailand, Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia and other places.
Different eras of the Spring Festival have different names. In the pre-Qin period, it was called "Shangri", "Yuanri", "Chanisui", "Xiansui", etc.; in the Han Dynasty, it was also called "Three Dynasties", "Suidan", "Zhengdan", "Zhengri" ; In the Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties, it was called "Yuanchen", "Yuanri", "Yuanshou", "Suichao", etc.; in the Tang, Song, Yuanming and Ming dynasties, it was called "New Year's Day", "Yuan", "Suiri", "Xinzheng" ", "Xinyuan", etc.; in the Qing Dynasty, it was always called "New Year's Day" or "Yuan's Day".
On December 31, 1911, the Hubei Military Government of the Republic of China issued the "Encyclical of the Ministry of Internal Affairs on the Switch to the Gregorian Calendar in the Republic of China", clearly referring to the New Year's Day as the "Spring Festival". By September 27, 1949, the First Plenary Session of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference further clarified that the first day of the first lunar month was called the "Spring Festival", and the name "Spring Festival" was officially included in the Chinese Festival Code. On May 20, 2006, the "Spring Festival" folk customs were approved by the State Council and included in the first batch of national intangible cultural heritage lists.
In different dynasties in history, the Spring Festival has different times. In the Xia Dynasty, January was the beginning of the year; in the Shang Dynasty, December was the beginning of the year; in the Zhou Dynasty, November was the beginning of the year; in the Qin Dynasty, October was the beginning of the year. During the Western Han Dynasty, Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty issued an edict to implement the Taichu calendar, and it was clearly stipulated that the first day of the first lunar month was the beginning of the year, and it was regarded as the new year of the lunar calendar.
The Spring Festival falls between January 21st and February 20th in the Gregorian calendar. The beginning of spring is usually on February 4th or February 5th. There is a whole day difference between the "earliest Spring Festival" (eg January 21, 1966) and the "latest Spring Festival" (eg February 20, 1985).
Leap Spring Festival, also known as leap month, started using the calendar leap system in 1645 AD. In the 1155 years to 2800 AD, the leap year of the lunar calendar only occurred 6 times. It is very rare. The years are respectively It's 1651, 2262, 2357, 2520, 2539, 2634. The latest time will be 2262, and our generation will not have the chance to see it.